Obsolescence

WASHINGTON. To expedite critical technologies to the field, the U.S. Army created a Rapid Capabilities Office and will conduct rapid materiel development and delivery efforts to address immediate, near-term, and mid-term Combatant Commanders' needs.

Every month the McHale Report will host an online roundtable with experts from the defense electronics industry – from major prime contractors to defense component suppliers. Each roundtable will explore topics important to the military embedded electronics market. This month we discuss trends in the military space market with attendees and exhibitors from the Nuclear [...]

Cuts to the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) budget over the last few years have created more demand for innovative simulation and training systems for military personnel, systems ranging from flight crews to radar technicians to maintenance teams across all services. In this Q&A with LeAnn Ridgeway, Vice President and General Manager of Simulation and [...]

NORWOOD, Massachusetts. Analog Devices, Inc. officials announced the pending acquisition of Linear Technology Corp. for a cash and stock transaction that values the combined venture at about $30 billion. With the merge of the companies, officials anticipate an approximate $5 billion in annual revenues in the analog industry with data converters, power management, amplifiers, interface, RF, and microwave products.

COLUMBUS, Ohio. U.S. Special Operations Command (SOCOM) officials tasked Battelle to build non-standard commercial vehicles (NSCVs) under a five-year contract, with an additional option for two years, valuing $170 million.

It's an unfortunate fact of life that anything of value can - and probably will - be faked at some point. While exciting stories of forged multimillion-dollar paintings and violins might make the news from time to time, the far more pedestrian fact is that counterfeiting of small electronic components is an unfortunately thriving business, and one of enormous potential consequence when lives depend on complex electronic equipment operating as anticipated. It is of absolutely vital importance to major defense contractors and the companies that supply them, not to mention to the warfighters who rely on this equipment, that counterfeit components not make their way into the field under any circumstances.

Designers of next-generation high-performance embedded computing (HPEC) solutions for demanding intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) systems applications got a boost from the introduction of Intel's multicore Xeon D system-on-chip (SoC) processor earlier in 2016. This device provides as many as 16 cores in the same power footprint as earlier four-core devices and features the rugged ball-grid-array (BGA) packages and extended temperature range needed for deployed applications.

DENMARK. The Danish Ministry of Defence announced that Denmark will acquire 27 F-35As to replace the F-16 aircraft, which has been in operation since 1980. The F-35As are expected to join the Royal Danish Air Force by 2024.

Decreasing costs for satellite launches have created new opportunities for nontraditional small satellites in alternative orbits. The application of expensive radiation-hardened (rad-hard) certified components is often not warranted for these applications. Rather, radiation-tolerant technology can provide these smaller projects with both substantial savings and an enhanced safety margin. Reliable methods to determine if commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) components are radiation tolerant can allow designers to screen components for the target radiation criteria that meet the mission requirements.

Military systems are noted for their high processing demands, a situation that is particularly true for graphics processing. Like their commercial counterparts, military displays are becoming faster, higher-resolution, and more complex. Both defense surveillance and commercial video-game applications, for example, share a need for the maximum possible raw graphics computational horsepower.